Is the Kindle Scribe a good fit for someone blind or low vision? | Kindle Accessibility for e-ink
Вставка
- Опубліковано 21 лип 2024
- Let's unbox and go over the accessibility on the Kindle Scribe! Is the Kindle Scribe a good for someone blind or low vision? Are are e-ink displays like the Kindle Paperwhite accessible? How does VoiceView work? Does it have magnification? This video will answer it all!
Video Chapters
0:00 Kindle Scribe Accessibility Intro
0:43 Kindle Scribe Unboxing
5:32 First look at the Kindle Scribe
6:33 Setting up the Kindle Scribe
8:16 Accessibility Settings on the Kindle Scribe
10:03 Display Size Settings on the Kindle Scribe
10:48 Glare on E-ink displays
11:23 Dark Mode on the Kindle Scribe
11:36 VoiceView Screen reader on the Kindle
15:03 Using VoiceView on Kindle Books
19:03 Largest font on Kindle Scribe
20:07 Summing up Accessibility on the Kindle Scribe
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Thank you so much for this video. Unlike almost all tech vid's on these e-readers you're the ONLY one (that I could find and I've searched many) who has actually showed the max size of fonts. I have no clue as to why all other reviewers when showing fonts. they only show the minimum size (which is insanely small) but NEVER show the max. It's very frustrating, so thanks for doing that. I was thinking of trying a kindle (I already have a kobo) but nope. Thanks to you, you saved me yet more $. The Kobo is ok (I love the design) but like the Kindle from what I can tell, the font's are still to small at max. What is it with all tablets/phones in that fonts go insanely tiny (not even when I had perfect sight could I ever read it and just wonder if programmers and the like have super vision. Why can they not make font's bigger? Even to just one word per screen.
Another thing I noticed in your video was that using voiceover... forgot what Amazon calls theirs. It can read word for word but why does the highlight turn off? I'm not completely blind and like to follow along with the text to speech but need the highlight on the word on so I don't get lost
. As it is now, I may go back to just using a tablet. I also have a 8" Amazon tab and that works almost perfectly. And it's much cheaper. I mean the whole reason when these e-inks came out was that it had no light. So your eye's don't get tired. But now they all have the backlighting which even at the lowest is still blinding to me. And the changing of the screen is really shocking to my eye's like you mentioned with yours.
Amway's thanks so much for yet another great and informative video!
That was always my struggle to! I always wanted to see what the maximum font size was and that's why I definitely put it in my video. It's so important when you are visually impaired! I would definitely recommend a tablet. It's still not as big as I wish it could be but it's still definitely bigger! You can also look at Kindle books on the computer as well. I also made a video about how Alexa can read Kindle books on a smart speaker and a phone. That's also really helpful for me. The voice viewscreen m is definitely behind in so many ways! Thanks for all your insight!0
This is interesting to watch. I’m totally blind, and I’ve never owned a kindle myself, so I’m enjoying watching this. I hope you don’t mind, but I shared it in my technology group I run for the blind on Facebook.
Hey Tif! I believe I'm part of your group though I will say I'm not the most active person on Facebook. Haha. Thanks for sharing it! It was rather disappointing for me overall, but still good to know I think! :)
Thank you for reviewing the Kindle Scribe. My wife has a Kindle Paperwhite that I use because it is set to black background with white lettering and I can increase the font to where I can read it. The iOS and computer kindle apps still are too bright for me.
My two complaints about my wife's Kindle are when the font is so large, the screen only shows one or two sentences at a time. I think the Scribe would fix that.
My other complaint is the system font does not increase large enough, as you showed in your video.
The good news is, all these complaints that we are noting can be fixed by Amazon with software upgrades. The Scribe was released back in November 2022 so they are currently fixing other bugs and adding new features. If Amazon believes accessibility fixes are of value, we may see our solutions in the future.
As an owner of a Scribe, you can give feedback, reviews and even contact Amazon regarding their shortfalls and let them know how they can benefit. I would be doing it if I could afford one right now.
Thanks again for the video.
Unfortunately, I've already returned it since it didn't really work for me. I'm glad it works for you. I wish that the text could still get bigger. But more than that, I wish the whole system could be larger when navigating to different books and through settings.
@@carrieonaccessibility That is so true.
Thanks for your review, it was super helpful! I've been on the fence about Kindles and wasn't sure how it'd function for me - I totally agree with you about the UI being really small. Even in your video, I could just barely make out what the icons even were & couldn't see anything on the start-up screen when you first booted it up. I'm still on the fence about it, but this totally gave me more insight than any other review I'd seen! Kudos!
I'm so glad that it was helpful! That's why I make these videos. I know for me, I would love to play with all the accessibility settings and everything in store, but that's not always possible and sometimes, you aren't able to do all those things. I hope that you can make a good decision and whatever you decide that it works out well for you! :)
Thank you so much for this review! I have low vision and just got a kindle scribe and couldn’t figure out how to get the voice over to work at all. Now I can give it another try
That's awesome. I'm glad I could help! :)
Hey Carrie, as for accessibility on the ink devices, I don't think magnifier/ magnification would work very well on an e-ink display. E-ink displays have a kind of slow refresh rate overall compared to LCDs and LED displays. The scrolling and moving around with magnification would be kind of jerky and just not a good experience. I am guessing that is why there is no magnification option on the Kindle. E-ink displays provide a very good almost print like experience on them for visual readers, but magnification would be kind of a bad experience. Overall. Great video as always.
You're right. Probably a conventional magnifier would be terrible on an e tank display. But I wish they had more font sizing and that the actual layout of the whole system was larger. I really couldn't tell a difference between standard and large and the large was not very large at all. They really need to work on that aspect and make it so that it's a lot easier to see. And navigate. Here's hoping! Because actually it would still be helpful if it could be large enough. I think that it's nice not to have the glaring light like we have on phones
You are very correct. There are some E-ink tablets running the android OS that exemplify the slower reaction of the display.
It sounds like the screen reader on this is very basic, compared to voiceover
Definitely! VoiceView needs to be improved a whole bunch to catch up with any other screen reader.
Thank you for this accessibility review! It's sad that most reviewers do not care at all about that and as a customer it's very hard to get those information.
Well, most reviewers don't even think of it, I think, since they don't use it. That's why I want to share videos like these for people who like me who want to know these things before they buy! WHen I bought it, I couldn't find videos about it either.
While the kindle scribe has made it easier to read books once the book is open, it can be challenging for a visually impaired individual to interact with the main interface and get to the book. I find that my eyes don't get as tired reading on the kindle scribe, but honestly I find myself going back to my fire 10.2 inch tablet to read and usually have it read the book to me. voiceview in my opinion is worthless. You did teach me some of the gestures that I didn't know about. Even talkback for me is a very frustrating experience.
I would encourage you to try talkback on a pixel device- I find it much easier. Even a Samsung device, though talkback is not on the up to date version, is much more responsive. VoiceView is incredibly frustrating! Argh! It is stuck on talkback from like 10 years ago which is just terrible.
I agree iwth you completely. ONce you're in the book, it may make it easier to read, but there's no way to easily navigate that system. Amazon really needs to work on it.
lol I have that same old Jambox. As soon as you turned it on I recognized that startup sound. I was hoping the Scribe would be something I could use, but sadly, I think I will be passing.
Yeah. I wish it was. I really thought it could be since it was larger and didn't have as much glare as a regular phone or tablet. It's supposed to look more like paper, but I was sadly disappointed. :(
Thank you so much very detail. I too am gifted with a visual impairment. Glad to find you. All the best.
Hey, glad you found it! Glad it helped. :)
I was thinking about getting one of these but never mind. Also I laughed when I heard your voice with the a few minutes later edit because I was expecting the spongebob meme voice.
Yeah! I don't really recommend getting one or any eating display. Next time I should definitely use that SpongeBob voice. I just didn't think about it. I know what you're talking about but I actually never watched SpongeBob! LOL
Thank you so much for the thorough review! I was considering this eReader for my visually impaired mother-in-law because the font size on her Kindle Paperwhite isn't quite large enough for comfortable reading. I was hoping the Scribe would have more large font options due to the extra screen real estate. I'm disappointed it doesn't. Regardless, great video!
I'm so glad it could be helpful! I agree, it's very disappointing. And I hope that Amazon can finally improve their accessibility. I really feel that it could do so much more... I hope you can find something that will work for her! Has she tried audio books at all? also, They do have Android tablets. that can get much larger. I know it's not the same as a Kindle, but that could be another option.
I bought a Kindle Scribe for reading my eBooks and hoped that this thing has a much bigger maximum font size than my 6,8 inch Kindle Paperwhite. But the Scribe has exactly the same font size settings as the Paperwhite. That’s a big bummer for me as a person with very low vision. Hopefully Amazon will include some additional accessibility settings and font size options.
Unfortunately, they haven't and everything is just way too small for me personally. It's easier to see on a phone or tablet. Hopefully in the future, Amazon will make it better!
@@carrieonaccessibility Yes, thats right
I don’t know why they don’t have magnification settings on a kindle. You would think that they would for someone who wants to be able to see it, but don’t want to use voice view on the Kindle. 9:25
I do slightly understand since it is an e-ink display. It wouldn't work so well like conventional magnification because of the slow refresh rate. However, they could definitely make everything much, much, much larger. Everything is so, so tiny. Here's hoping Amazon improves!
@@carrieonaccessibility yeah, I know the feeling
Hey kerry, it’s been so lon hey kerry, it’s Aliza here it’s been so long since we’ve last spoken. I only found out about your channel through Tamara from unsightly opinions who has been training me on Mac accessibility. Really think Amazon need to do more in terms of accessibility and just looking at this. I’m totally disappointed as a screen radiator and bless your heart you were struggling as well so it’s a disappointment really😀🙃
Hey Aliza! It's so nice to see you again! It's been quite a while. I'm glad Tamara told you about the channel. She's so great. I hope you're doing well? Are you using VoiceOver on the mac? How is that going?
@@carrieonaccessibility are you kerry? Yes Tamara is training me with VoiceOver returned on so much in the space of a couple of months since I started at university and the Brunel where I go in the UK absolutely love her she’s helped me with a lot with advocacy to what social media feeds are you on now? Is it the same I think it’s really time that we probably could catch up on the live stream or something
Well the Kindle app has always been iffy, even after updates. It isn't ideal for me as a screen reader user. It seems like it would be nice if it was really accessible in a decent way. Turning on accessibility is still not sounding reasonably easy enough. Sad.
Hmm. I've always had a good experience with the kindle app with both voiceover and talkback. I'm wondering if maybe its because you are on an older version of iOS maybe? I'm sorry that it is a challenge for you. :(
Why there is no aspeaker in kindle
That was a design decision by Amazon unfortunately. . :(
Hi Carrie, I just found your channel and am so happy! My husband has Stargardt’s disease and can only read using the largest fonts held within 6 inches from his eyes. I am considering getting him a kindle scribe for Father’s Day. He has an iPhone which he can send and receive texts with using its largest accessible font size. Would you say that the kindle scribe’s largest font size is smaller, larger, or the same as what an iPhone offers?
Thanks so much!
P
So the main interface is really small. All the buttons are small everything that you need to navigate or find books is really small. When you're actually in a book the largest font will probably be around the same size as the largest it will go on it Kindle on the iphone. The problem is there is very little contrast. I don't really recommend it if he is typically using the largest fonts. He may maybe be able to read the books but the rest of navigating and everything might be really challenging. That's just my experience.
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Thanks for doing this video. I thought I'd like the Scribe, but since the UI doesn't enlarge I know I'll be frustrated with the device. Plus no speaker. OOMG this device is not set up for BI people.
I really wanted to like the device too. I thought that it's such a great idea and. unfortunately it just isn't it. In a way, I do kind of understand the reason that it doesn't have a speaker. that helps with battery life. I just wish it had a headphone jack at least! And I don't know why it's so difficult to add a larger system, not just on books. Hopefully, one day Amazon will improve it!
I'd prefer to use a cheap Android tablet with the Read Era ebook reader app installed.
Hi. I wanted to ask you, I am always on the lookout for an ereader app that can auto-scroll. I have no clue why they don't make one.. I did find moon reader does but it's only on Android. Do you know if read era does and if they make an apple app? Thanks for any thought you may have.
I don't think it autoscrolls, but it ought to be compatible with Google Reader Services.
@@paulcresswell6268 Ok. Thanks for the info and I just checked, no Apple app version. Onward to that eternal search for aoto-scroll lol. have a great one!
Yes, I would prefer using a tablet or phone with the Kindle app as well! It feels like a better experience overall and that's probably what I would suggest. :)
Honestly I find it very annoying that e ink tablets manufacturers still being so lazy on accessibility for the visually impaired. We should be the first one being able to use them, but as usual, the abled put their needs first. The Amazon's screen reader voiceview is very shameful! It's better than nothing but in 2023 when Talkback and voiceover do exist, it is not understandable that the options are so limited.
Also I don't get why they don't work on a simplified and adapted user interface, whith bigger icons and larger fonts, directly available on the device or donwloadable by the user. I mean not a copy of the abled suitable UI, but actually a specific one, suitable for most visually impaired folks.
Really, Amazon (and the others), do better!
Yeah, it's really frustrating! I think its really disappointing that Amazon, with all its resources, really insufficient and really lacks in their accessibility. VoiceView is years and years behind all the other screen readers and I would say that e ink has the potential to be super helpful for people who are low vision, but they don't put in the research or effort to do it. Ugh.
Yes the kindle Ui is horrible to use for people with low vision. Its a shame. On my Iphone I can customize everything to work great for my speacial needs as a person with low vision. But the Kindle Scribe is a disappointment for peaople with low vision.